Category: Alaska

Union employment in the U.S. continued to shrink this past year. Nationwide union participation stands at 12.3% which is a slight decline from 2008.

The BLS 2009 Annual Union Affiliation by Statesurvey was recently published. It has brought increased attention to the union movement. Union policy will further be in the spotlight this week as the Senate wrestles with the nomination of Craig Becker, a clearly pro-union candidate, to the National Labor Review Board. See GOP’s Senate Gain Clouds Prospect of Obama’s Labor Board Nominee. In view of this upcoming debate, we thought it would be helpful to take a deeper look at state unionization and employment.Let’s take a look at state unionization.

New York is the most unionized state in the nation with 27.2% of its population working for a union. More than 1 in four workers are represented by a union in New York. Hawaii at 24.3% is the second most unionized state at 24.3%, followed by Alaska at 23.6%. Washington, Michigan, and New Jersey are heavily unionized states with about 20% union participation rates.

The least unionized state is North Carolina at 4.4%. Only one in 23 workers in North Carolina are represented by a union, a sharp difference as compared to New York. Additional states with low union participation rates are Arkansas at 5.0%, Virginia at 5.4%, South Carolina at 5.4% and Georgia at 5.9%

Twenty seven states had decreased union participation in 2009 as compared with 2008. States with low union participation rates generally became less so in 2009 and those states with union growth were primarily already highly unionized. There are 22 states with right to work laws in the U.S. Right to work laws generally do not require employees to pay fees or join a union even if voted in.

A look at union participation and unemployment shows states with high union participation rates are closely associated with higher unemployment.

The five Worst States for Employment in 2009 were Michigan, Rhode Island, Nevada, California and South Carolina. All but South Carolina are highly unionized states. The Worst States for Employment in 2009 generally were highly unionized states.

Worst States for Employment and Union Participation

The Best States for Employment in 2009 were North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa, Oklahoma and Kansas. All but Iowa have unionparticipation rates below the U.S. average and would be classified asstates with low unionization. If you are looking for a job, look at states with low unionization. They tend to have less unemployment. See Best and Worst States for Jobs: Will Jobs Improve in 2010 for the rankings of all states by employment. The list of Best States for Employment and Union Participation follows:

Best States for Employment and Union Participation

The list of Unionism by State follows:

Unionism by State

Union membership has been in a long term decline since 1983 when BLS first started measuring it in a consistent way. Union participation was 20.1% of the working population in 1983. It is now approximately 40% lower at 12.3%. For the first time in 2009, the majority of union members now work for the government and not for private, for profit entities. These state workers are on average paid significantly more than private industry. Making it easier for government workers to unionize will only push labor costs higher and cost the taxpayers more. Political leaders should be trying to keep these costs in check. (The average federal worker’s pay is $71,206 as compared to $40,331 in the private sector and is growing above inflation rates) The Obama administration’s labor policy approach creates a conflict with its responsibilities to protect the taxpayer. Increased unionization will increase our cost of government. If the Obama administration is serious about job creation and deficit control, it may want to reconsider this approach. Unions and job creation generally do not have a positive correlation. Watch the news this week as it relates to Craig Becker. It will have implications for jobs and deficits.

Sunshine is an under appreciated dimension when thinking about where to live. It can improve your health and happiness. Yet rarely do we hear people say they picked a state for its sunshine. They think more about weather temperature, jobs, taxes, cost of living etc. Sunny states generally qualify as Best States for Retirement and are Happy States according to recent happiness studies.

The Best States for Sunshine are Arizona and Nevada. Phoenix and Las Vegas each have 310 sunny days a year or 85% sunshine.

The Top 5 States for Sunshine, in addition to Arizona and Nevada, are California, New Mexico and Hawaii. Florida, the Sunshine State, is ranked 7th of all states.

The Worst State for Sunshine is Alaska with only 41% sunny days. Anchorage has only 150 days a year of sunshine half of Phoenix and Las Vegas.

The 5 Worst States for Sunshine are Alaska, Washington, Oregon, Vermont and Ohio. All 5 states have sun less than 50% of the time.
The List of Sunshine for all U.S. States is published below.

Rankings of Sunshine by State

If you are considering what are the Best States for Weather, study the Best States for Sunshine. You may just end up with happier choices.

Does Increased Spending on Higher Education lead to Better State University Rankings?

I thought you would find the rankings of state higher education spending and state university rankings useful. Intuitively one would believe that states that spend more would have better ranked universities. Higher State spending does not mean it is a Best State for Education. Lower State spending does not mean it is a Worst State for Education. A closer look is warranted.

Utah spends the most of its state budget on higher education at 15.5%. Its University of Utah is ranked 126 according to U.S. News 2009 College Ratings. New York spends the least of all states on higher education with only 5.4% of its budget yet its highest rated public school SUNY-Binghamton is ranked higher than Utah at 80. North Dakota is a close second in spending at 15.4% and its university’s state ranking in education is Tier III. Tier III means it is ranked in the 50-75% of all national universities i.e. below average. 7 of the 10 lowest spending states on higher education have higher university rankings than high spending North Dakota. North Dakota does not get much bang for its buck.
High Spending States on Higher Education and University Rankings

NorthCarolina is third highest ranked state on higher education spending at 14.2% and has the highest rated public university of the high spending states with a rank of 28. This appears to be a positive spend to school rank association. Yet neighboring Georgia with a spend of 7.6% has its Georgia Institute of Technology rated 35. Georgia Institute of Technology is higher than every high spend state ranking other than North Carolina.

Alaska is the second lowest higher education spending ranked state at 6.1% and appears to get what it pays for. Its school is rated a bottom 25% Tier IV by U.S. News. Florida is the third lowest state in spend at 6.3% and appears to get very good returns with the University of Florida rated 47, higher than every high spend state other than North Carolina.
States with the lowest spending on higher education are primarily in the Northeast. 7 of the lowest 10 states are from the Northeast. They are, in addition to New York, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Pennsylvania and Maine. Yet 4 of the states, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Connecticut have higher ranked schools than every high spend state other than North Carolina.
Low Spending States on Higher Education and University Rankings

A simple thesis that more spending on education leads to better results continues to be elusive. Be wary of political leaders who say that they are managing your education system better by spending more money. Check the results.

We ran our September 2009 Best and Worst States for Job openings. Job Openings dropped an alarming 6.2% on September 30 as compared to July 31. This is particularly discouraging as we had seen our only increase in job openings this year in July. This reversal ratifies the year long downward trend. We develop our analysis from data listed by the nation’s largest job posting service CareerBuilder.com. It is a good proxy for job openings nationwide.

Job Openings nationwide shrank in September to 217,040 from 231,370 in July, a drop of 14,330 job openings.

48 States saw jobs shrink. Alaska, NorthDakota, South Dakota and Montana saw the biggest percentage job opening losses. KentuckyJobs, with an increase of only 180 job openings. and Utah Jobs, up 30, were the TopStates for Jobs and the only 2 states in the nation that showed improvement since July 31.

CaliforniaJobs shrank the most numerically with an 1197 loss at September 30. Texas Jobs, Florida Jobs and Pennsylvania Jobs showed large losses in numbers in September. ( I will post analysis of Job Opening Losses during the Obama Administration after unemployment numbers are released for September)

The list of Best and Worst States for Jobs as of September 2009 follows:

Floyd Norris of the New York Times had an interesting blog post today titled Where People Die . An unusual topic. Floyd’s post listed the Best and Worst States for Births and States with Most Deaths per capita.

Then again Floyd does unusual work as evidenced by the fact that he interviewed me in Dec of 2007. His piece Pessimism Is Growing in Executive Suites investigated the outlook from the CEO perspective. I stated back then ““The recent dramatic drop in confidence may suggest that the worst is yet to come.” Prescient in hindsight. CEO’s were very negative about the future then and they continue to be.

The States with Most Births per capita are below. Utah is the state with the most births per capita. Alaska, Mississippi, Texas and Oklahoma are also Top States for Births.

Floyd also reports some observations about the politics of the lists. It might have been more fun if he had made some social observations. For example, is Utah more of a loving state as evidenced by the its high birth rates? Why is Vermont having so few births? Do they need to love a little more? State lists are fun What are your thoughts?

After dropping like a rock during the first few months of the year and staying there through May, job openings have increased 8.59% nationwide since May 31, according to analysis released by BestandWorstStates.com. This is encouraging news and reinforces the view that employment dynamics are improving from their lows. While a significant rebound, it should be viewed with caution as job openings are still 1.57% below late January levels, just prior to the stimulus package being passed. Total job openings are not high enough to make a significant improvement to the jobless rate which was released this week to be a slightly improved 9.4%. For a complete list of state job opening activity see previous post List of Job Openings by State

Job openings increased nationwide 8.59% from May 31, 2009 from 210,048 to 231,370 on July 31, 2009. This increase is quite significant with 44 states showing increases during the past two months. The Top States for Jobs were mostly small states. Indiana was a notable large state on the Best State for Jobs list with a 18.14% increase in job openings during the last 60 days. Most of the Best States for Jobs have below average unemployment rates. The number of job openings in many of these states are quite small. Many of these small states would be Best States for Jobs if you are looking for employment however. For the complete Best States for Jobs List see

Job openings have decreased 1.57% since the end of January nationwide even though 30 states have more job openings than in January. The Top Ten US States according to population have shown a 4.1% decrease in job openings. California, the US largest state, has 9.3% lower jobs available than in January. With a 11.6% jobless rate, California appears to be a poor state for job seekers. Illinois is also a Worst State for Jobs with a 14.2% drop in openings along with a 10.5% unemployment rate. The US unemployment rate will not improve significantly without the Top Ten States also improving as these states have about 50% of the US population.

The article points out the marked differences between states and helpsmake the case that the lower tax, less government intrusion model of Texas is winning over California. This is a case we have long advocated. The Economist also notes the work that this writer has developed overthe last 5 years on Chief Executive’s Best and Worst States for Business. (Texas is #1 and California is #50 according to CEOs.)

With all 50 state governments under severe fiscal pressure, it is only a matter of time that the next phase of recovery will be focused on growth. You can not spend your way out of a problem. The severity of this budget crisis may lead finally to a rethinking of attitudes towards business. My list of states that need major rethinking would start with the 10 most broke states. They are:

1. California: $53.7 billion shortfall or 58 percent of its budget
2. Arizona: $4 billion shortfall or 41 percent of its budget
3. Nevada: $1.2 billion or 38 percent of its budget
4. Illinois: $9.2 billion or 33 percent of its budget
5. NewYork: $17.9 billion or 32 percent of its budget
6. Alaska: $1.35 billion shortfall or 30 percent of its budget
7. New Jersey: $8.8 billion or 30 percent of its budget
8. Oregon: $4.2 billion or 29 percent of its budget
9. Vermont: $278 million or 25 percent of its budget
10. Washington: $3.6 billion or 23 percent of its budget
10. Connecticut: $4.1 billion or 23 percent of its budget

Source: ABC News

The Top Ten Broke States tend to have the most taxation and most are run by liberal oriented governments.

All 50 states will be politically pressured to increase opportunities and jobs for their populations in the coming years. Being attractive to business will be the obvious choice. The wonders of our American system are our many state laboratories. High Tax States, Low Tax States, Business Friendly States and Business Unfriendly States. Those states early to adopt policies that encourage business will recover and grow faster than those who are slow. We are glad to see more publications like The Economist contributing to the debate. Hopefully we will start to see more low tax, business friendly policy changes in our many laboratories get enacted.

Their piece reinforces the general messages of this site, namely that there are Best and Worst States in the U.S. to live, create wealth and grow a business. The story makes a case for common sense state policies of low taxes and favorable business regulatory climate. In the piece Moore and Laffer point out that the no income tax states have created “89% more jobs and had 32% faster personal income growth than their high-tax counterparts.” In other words, successful people and businesses go to the more favorable tax and regulatory environments.

We have long advocated state governments to adopt more business and citizen friendly policy. Laffer and Moore bring this issue to the forefront today with their well-written piece. I hope state governors and legislators also read it and take action.

For those of you interested the nine no income tax states in the U.S. are Texas, Nevada, New Hampshire, Florida, South Dakota, Wyoming, Washington, Alaska and Tennessee. New Hampshire and Tennessee do tax interest and dividends however.

The Tax Foundation recently released their 2009 Tax Freedom Day Study. It measures how many days the average worker must work to pay taxes. There is a wide disparity among states. The tax burden you bear can significantly impact your quality of life.

The Best State for Tax Freedom is Alaska where it takes 82 days almost 25% of the year just to pay taxes. Louisiana, Mississippi, South Dakota, North Dakota and West Virginia are also rated Best States for Tax Freedom. If you are not retired, these states would be considered as candidates for Best States to Work.

The Worst State for Tax Freedom is Connecticut where it takes 120 days or until April 30 to pay taxes. If you live in Connecticut 1/3 of your time every year goes to pay taxes to the Federal, State and Local governments. That is almost 50% more days than Alaska. New Jersey, New York, California and Maryland are also rated Worst States for Tax Freedom.

According to the Tax Foundation study, five major categories of tax dominate the tax burden. Individual income taxes, both federal and state, require 38 days’ work. Payroll taxes take another 27 days’ work. Sales and excise taxes, mostly state and local, take 15 days to pay off. Corporate income taxes take 6 days, and property taxes take 12. Americans will log 4 more days to pay other miscellaneous taxes, most notably including motor vehicle license taxes and severance taxes, and about 1 day for estate taxes.

What state you live in is very important in determining your lifestyle as higher cost of living states tend to have higher tax burdens. Lower disposable income is the result. Many states are also increasing many taxes due to economic conditions which will increase tax burdens. Noteworthy examples are the proposed increases in New York and California that will make these heavily burdened states more undesirable to live. If you are not retired, New York and California would have to be considered as 2 of the Worst States to Work.

The February 2009 State Unemployment numbers were released this past week and they were not pretty. Every state in the U.S. saw its unemployment rate increase.

Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) also released March Unemployment, along with Feb state data, and the nationwide unemployment rate increased again to 8.5% nationwide. It was 8.1% in February.

Seven States had unemployment above 10% in February. Michigan was the Worst State for Jobs with a whopping 12% unemployment number. South Carolina, Oregon, North Carolina, California Rhode Island and Nevada also qualify as Worst States for Employment as the 6 other states with unemployment above 10% .

The Best State for Jobs based on a low 3.9% unemployment is Wyoming. 4 other states qualify as Best States forEmployment with rates still below 5%. They are: Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota and Iowa.

Some of the state year on year changes are quite large. Unemployment increased by over 100% from last year in Hawaii and Oregon for example. Of the large states, Texas is holding up the best with unemployment of only 6.2% in February which was below the U.S. Feb average of 8.1%.

State data is released with a one month lag so expect March state unemployment to get even worse as unemployment increased nationwide in March by .4%.